It's not an understatement to say in the 2008-2009 College Basketball season, the Big East Conference will put forth the greatest collection of teams in a single conference ever.
Early preseason polls and projections from across the country have seven to eight Big East teams in the top 25 with up to nine total receiving votes. Most have three Big East teams in the top five to ten spots.
The early projections come after seven Big East schools finished ranked in the USA/ESPN poll and UCONN was on the outside looking in, but still receiving votes.
Most of the ranked teams improve for the 2008 season.
The Big East names 11 players to their first all-conference team. Of those 11, six will return for another season at their respective schools. Of the five players not returning, Roy Hibbert, David Padgett, Brian Laing, Kentrell Gransberry, and Joe Alexander, only one has nobody to replace him on a contending team.
Greg Monroe will enter Georgetown with nearly as much hype as Greg Oden to replace the somewhat overrated Roy Hibbert (Jonathon Wallace goes down as without a doubt the more valuable player for the Hoyas).
While Cardinals' incoming recruit Samuardo Samuels won't be filling David Padgett's position, he'll still be an instant impact player that will help UL fans forget Padgett and the also departing Derrick Caracter.
Joe Alexander departs an up and coming Mountaineer team under the tutelage of Bob Huggins. He's only one of three Big East all-conference performers to forfeit at least a year of eligibility to take a shot at the pros. He leaves West Virginia at a critical juncture of the school's development as a basketball program.
Alexander represents the last piece for West Virginia to become a premier basketball program. They've got a lot of good players, a great coach, and a solid fan base. What they are missing is the superstar go to guy. Alexander is that guy.
Kentrell Gransberry and Brian Laing leave two teams that have quickly become second and third tier Big East teams.
South Florida has struggled to get off the ground since moving to the Big East a few years ago. They've got a little hope with all-conference guard Dominique Jones, but the Bulls don't have a lot of quality players to surround him with.
Brian Laing leaves a Seton Hall team that continued to under-perform despite quality players like Laing, Eugene Harvey, and and Jamar Nutter.
Besides Alexander, only two other Big East underclassmen are attempting to play at the next level. Syracuse's Donte' Greene leaves a stacked youthful squad and Marquette's Jerel McNeal bailed on the now Tom Crean-less Golden Eagles.
Both leave both of those teams most likely one player short from being top tier teams in the Big East in 2008-2009.
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